Denver police Chief Gerry Whitman was the last witness to take the stand in a civil service commission hearing this morning for Officers Ricky Nixon and Kevin Devine, who are trying to get their jobs back after then-Manager of Safety Charles Garcia fired them earlier this year.

Though Whitman didn’t say anything earth-shattering, he did make comments that seemed to back up Nixon and Devine’s attorney’s argument that Garcia didn’t have the real-life police experience to sit in judgment of officers’ decisions.

Whitman, on the other hand, started with the Denver police department in 1982. He worked in districts 3, 2, 1 and 6, was in the gang unit and was chief of patrol before he became chief.

Nixon and Devine’s attorney, Brian Reynolds, asked Whitman if that street experience was important to him as chief of police – whether it gave him a better perspective about what officers face and helped him understand their actions.